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This open access book turns the research attention of social policy scholars and long-term care researchers from comparative descriptions of care systems, focusing mostly on expenditures and volumes of long-term care services, to outcomes, and in particular to the question whether older people really receive the support that they need. Without knowledge about which needs and which social groups are currently inadequately covered, it is impossible to guide policy development. The book puts forward a novel theoretical framework to guide future research work and public discussion on the issue of unmet long-term care needs, by broadening the current discussion so that inadequate care is seen in its societal and policy contexts, taking structural issues and policy designs into account. Kröger outlines three different domains of care poverty (personal care poverty, practical care poverty and socio-emotional care poverty) and differentiates between main methods how unmet needs are measured. This book summarises the existing knowledge on the prevalence, factors and consequences of unmet care needs and interprets these comparatively in the light of social inequalities and care policy models of different welfare states. It will be invaluable to students and scholars of social policy, social work, social gerontology, sociology and political science, and to all disciplines across the field of social sciences that study welfare state policies and care for older people.

PurposeThis paper aims to use perspectives from both mainstream and feminist welfare state research in drafting a conceptual approach for social care research. This approach is then applied empirically to a comparative analysis of childcare provisions of 15 OECD countries.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of dedomestication is developed from a discussion on the notions of decommodification and defamilisation, and it is defined as the degree to which social care policies make it possible for people to participate in society and social life outside their homes and families. In the empirical part of the paper, dedomestication of childcare service provisions of 15 welfare states is measured by an index that is constructed on the basis of time replacement rate, availability, affordability, quality, and take‐up rates of care services.FindingsDenmark offers the highest degree of dedomestication to parents of young children, followed by a group of Nordic and Western European countries. In English‐speaking "liberal regime" nations, dedomestication remains more limited but it is lowest in the Central European countries of Hungary and Austria. The findings only partly follow earlier welfare regime categorisations.Originality/valueThe paper develops a new original conceptual framework for comparative study of care services that is then applied to an empirical analysis of childcare provisions in 15 welfare states, bringing out new results on the breadth of welfare state services.

Kröger T. Lone mothers and the puzzles of daily life: do care regimes really matter?Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 390–401 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.This article studies childcare patterns and day‐to‐day strategies of 111 working lone mothers from Finland, France, Italy, Portugal and the UK, and asks whether their arrangements are prescribed by care regimes. Lone mothers' arrangements are grouped into five based on the availability and use of different formal and informal childcare resources. The article argues that, even though lone mothers have a more favourable starting point in Finland and France compared with Britain, Italy and Portugal where formal childcare coverage is patchier, childcare arrangements are not very dissimilar within different care regimes. Instead, similarities across care regimes are highlighted. Formal provisions have their limitations in all the countries studied and in all cases significant expectations are placed on informal childcare. The availability of informal childcare cannot, however, be taken for granted in any country, and working lone mothers whose informal and formal resources do not adequately meet their childcare needs were located in every care regime, facing care poverty.

Disability researchers have voiced the criticism that the concept of care, together with research based on it, consists of the view that disabled people are dependent non-autonomous second-class citizens. The perspectives of disability studies and care research certainly are different from each other. Disability studies analyse the oppression and exclusion of disabled people and emphasize that disabled people need human rights and control over their own lives. Care research focuses rather on care relationships, informal and formal care, care-giving work and `an ethics of care'. Nevertheless, it is suggested here that the two perspectives are not mutually exclusive and that the two groups could learn from each other's approaches. For example, the relationship between disabled people and their personal assistants has much the same characteristics as the care relationship and requires a balancing of the needs and interests of the two parties. On the other hand, access to adequate care could be perceived as a basic civil and human right.

Highlighting what can be learned from individual experiences, the book analyses the changing welfare and labour market policies which shape the lives of working carers in Finland, Sweden, Australia, England, Japan and Taiwan.

Drawing on contemporary research and debates from different Nordic countries, this book examines how social work and child welfare politics are produced and challenged as both global and local ideas and practices.

Overstretched provides fresh perspectives on the reality of European family life where care and paid work need to be woven together on a daily basis, offering an opportunity to discuss and evaluate care policies in a new light.A collection of essays providing new perspectives on the reality of European family life where care and paid work need to be woven together on a daily basis. Focuses on families who live under strained conditions, such as lone parent families, immigrant families, and families who care simultaneously for both their children and an elderly family member. Based on interview